Last year, Rendell orchestrated five trades with Ben Hudson, Marty Mattner and John Meesen all leaving West Lakes and Brad Symes and Brad Moran both joining the club.
But Rendell said he wouldn’t be looking for anything in particular at the trade table this time around.
“We were busy in the trade week last year. We had five to do, some of them forced, but I don’t envisage that next week. I think we’ll be very, very quiet,” Rendell said at the NAB AFL Draft Camp.
“If someone throws up something we might be interested in, we’ll have a look, but I haven’t gone chasing anything this year.
“Last year, we chased Brad Moran as, maybe, a back-up full-back, ruckman or key-position player, but I haven’t chased anything this year and I can’t see much happening at this stage.”
Instead, the Crows are likely to turn their focus to the NAB AFL Draft on November 29.
Adelaide, like most clubs, would ideally like to secure a key forward in the draft and Rendell said there was some chance one might slip through to the Crows’ first pick, which at this stage is at number 10.
“A key forward is on everyone’s shopping list and there are a lot of talls in the draft, but they’ll probably all go early again like they did last year,” Rendell said.
“Jonathan Brown was a father-son selection, but others, like Nick Riewoldt went at number one. Brendan Fevola was one who slipped out the back, but most of the really, good key forwards end up going in the top five.
“There’s usually not that many of them, but there are a few that could be there [at pick 10] this year and, hopefully, you manage to get one who ends up being a key forward for you.”
Two local lads who fit that bill are Port Pirie teenager Lewis Johnston and tall North Adelaide defender/forward Phil Davis.
Johnston, 17, was named at centre half-forward in the Under-18 All-Australian side this season and attracted plenty of attention at last week’s NAB AFL Draft Camp in Canberra.
Davis, 18, underwent a mid-year shoulder reconstruction and, despite sitting out all of the physical testing at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, was interviewed by a large number of the 16 clubs.
Rendell said he was impressed by both of the South Australian U18 representatives.
“Phil didn’t play at all much this year because he injured his shoulder and Lewis Johnston had a pretty good year considering he had to travel from Port Pirie all the time,” he said.
“We’ve spoken to Phil and we interviewed Lewis at the club a while back, so we know them both pretty well.”
Rendell, who interviewed more than 30 draftee hopefuls last week, said it could take him up to three weeks to put this year’s deep pool of talent into order ahead of the all-important draft selection meeting next month.
“This week [at the Draft Camp] is a very important week. You watch blokes all year, but some guys who look quick in games don’t test that quick and others who look slow show they aren’t,” Rendell said.
“It’s the last piece of the puzzle, the draft camp. Now, we have the results of the psychomotor tests, the psychological tests and all the athletic tests, which we can sit down and have a look at before we put it all together in the next month or so.”
